《美食祈禱和戀愛》Chapter 1 (1):遇見意大利美男大綱

I wish Giovanni would kiss me.

但願喬凡尼（Giovanni）可以吻我。

Oh, but there are so many reasons why this would be a terrible idea. To begin with, Giovanni is ten years younger than I am, and—like most Italian guys in their twenties—he still lives with his mother. These facts alone make him an unlikely romantic partner for me, given that I am a professional American woman in my mid-thirties, who has just come through a failed marriage and a devastating, interminable divorce, followed immediately by a passionate love affair that ended in sickening heartbreak. This loss upon loss has left me feeling sad and brittle and about seven thousand years old. Purely as a matter of principle I wouldn't inflict my sorry, busted-up old self on the lovely, unsullied Giovanni. Not to mention that I have finally arrived at that age where a woman starts to question whether the wisest way to get over the loss of one beautiful brown-eyed young man is indeed to promptly invite another one into her bed. This is why I have been alone for many months now. This is why, in fact, I have decided to spend this entire year in celibacy.

哦，不過有太多原因表明 ，這是個恐怖的念頭。首先 ，喬凡尼比我小十歲，而且— —和大多數二十來歲的意大利男人一樣——他仍和媽媽住在一起。單憑這些事情，他就不是個恰當的戀人人選。尤其因爲我是一位三十歲過半的美國職業女性 ，在剛剛經歷失敗的婚姻和沒完沒了的慘烈離婚過程後 ， 緊接着又來了一場以心碎告終的熾熱戀情。這雙重耗損使我感到悲傷脆弱，覺得自己像七千歲。純粹出於原則問題，我不想把自己這樣一團糟的可憐老女人，強加於清白可愛的喬凡尼身上。更甭說我這種年紀的女人已經開始會質疑，失去了一個褐眼年輕美男子 ，最明智的遺忘方式是否就是馬上邀請另一個上牀 。這就是我已獨處數月的理由 。事實上，這正是我決定這一整年過獨身生活的原因。

To which the savvy observer might inquire: "Then why did you come to Italy?"

機敏的觀察者或許要問：“那你幹嘛來意大利？”

To which I can only reply—especially when looking across the table at handsome Giovanni—"Excellent question."

我只能回答——尤其隔着桌子注視着俊俏的喬凡尼——“問得好”。

Giovanni is my Tandem Exchange Partner. That sounds like an innuendo, but unfortunately it's not. All it really means is that we meet a few evenings a week here in Rome to practice each other's languages. We speak first in Italian, and he is patient with me; then we speak in English, and I am patient with him. I discovered Giovanni a few weeks after I'd arrived in Rome, thanks to that big Internet café at the Piazza Barbarini, across the street from that fountain with the sculpture of that sexy merman blowing into his conch shell. He (Giovanni, that is—not the merman) had posted a flier on the bulletin board explaining that a native Italian speaker was seeking a native English speaker for conversational language practice. Right beside his appeal was another flier with the same request, word-for-word identical in every way, right down to the typeface. The only difference was the contact information. One flier listed an e-mail address for somebody named Giovanni; the other introduced somebody named Dario. But even the home phone number was the same.

喬凡尼是我的“串連交流夥伴”。這詞聽來頗具影射意味，可惜不然。它真正的意思是 ，我們每個禮拜在羅馬此地見幾個晚上的面 ，練習對方的語言。我們先以意大利語交談，他寬容我；而後我們以英語交談，我寬容他。我在抵達羅馬幾個禮拜後找到喬凡尼，多虧巴巴里尼廣場（PiazzaBarbarini）的一家大網吧，就在吹海螺的性感男人魚雕像噴泉對街。他（這指的是喬凡尼，而不是男人魚）在佈告板上貼了張傳單，說有個操意大利母語的人想找以英文爲母語的人練習語言會話 。在他的啓事旁邊有另一張傳單，做出相同的尋人請求，逐字逐句、連打印字體都一模一樣 。唯一不同的是聯絡資料。一張傳單列出某某喬凡尼的電郵地址；另一張則介紹某個叫達里奧（Dario）的人。不過兩人的住家電話則都一樣。

Using my keen intuitive powers, I e-mailed both men at the same time, asking in Italian, "Are you perhaps brothers?"

運用敏銳的直覺力 ，我同時寄給兩人電子郵件，用意大利文問道 ：“敢情你們是兄弟？”

It was Giovanni who wrote back this very provocativo message: "Even better. Twins!"

喬凡尼回覆了一句相當挑逗的話：“更好咧。是雙胞胎。”

Yes—much better. Tall, dark and handsome identical twenty-five-year-old twins, as it turned out, with those giant brown liquid-center Italian eyes that just unstitch me. After meeting the boys in person, I began to wonder if perhaps I should adjust my rule somewhat about remaining celibate this year. For instance, perhaps I could remain totally celibate except for keeping a pair of handsome twenty-five-year-old Italian twin brothers as lovers. Which was slightly reminiscent of a friend of mine who is vegetarian except for bacon, but nonetheless . . . I was already composing my letter to Penthouse:

是啊 ，好得多 。結果是兩位身材高大、膚色淺黑、相貌英俊的二十五歲同卵雙胞胎 ，水汪汪的意大利褐眼使我全身癱軟 。親眼見到兩名大男孩後 ，我開始盤算是否應該調整一下今年過獨身生活的規定。比方說，或許我該全然保持獨身，除了留着一對帥氣的二十五歲意大利雙胞胎當情人 。這有點像我一個吃素的朋友只吃醃肉。然而„„我已開始給 《閣樓》雜誌寫起信來：

In the flickering, candlelit shadows of the Roman café, it was impossible to tell whose hands were caress—

在羅馬咖啡館搖曳的燭影下，無法分辨誰的手 在撫摸——